The Golden Age of Zinfandel

Or, how we almost had a cheap, well-made every day California red wine like Chianti and Beaujolais – and then we didn’t

One of my first great crusades as a wine writer in the mid-1990s was California zinfandel. There were any number of cheap, well-made, and delicious labels, and it seemed like zinfandel had the chance to become the U.S. equivalent of Italy’s Chianti and France’s Beaujolais – a quality, every day red wine that everyone could afford.

How different would the wine world have been if that had happened?

But, of course, it never did. Because, wine.

So check out this freelance piece for Pix.wine, where I discuss how and why that happened. Needless to say, it was a great joy to write (despite the crummy, SEO-oriented headlines) and reminded me that California can make the best wine in the world — and even the best cheap wine. Among the highlights:

• Talking to Joel Peterson, one of the nicest guys in the wine business and a terrific winemaker, as well as the always entertaining Carol Shelton, another top-flight zinfandel maker.

• Recounting the history of zinfandel in California, where vines planted more than a century ago are still used to make wine.

• Ranting about high-alcohol wine and how Robert Parker not only destroyed quality, affordable zinfandel in the U.S., but didn’t much help Australian shiraz in the long run, either.

• Finding a connection between overpriced Napa cabernet sauvignon and what became too many overpriced California zinfandels. Or, as one long-time wine guy told me, “Follow the money.”